Category: Sugar Industry

The city of Berkeley, California passed a one cent per ounce soda tax in two thousand fourteen. Soda, energy drinks, juice with added sugar, and syrups are charged one cent per fluid ounce. Of course this government bureaucracy keeps those tax proceeds.

Berkeley claims that this is not a tax on consumers. Distribution companies are required to pay this tax each month. A University of North Carolina study claims that soda sales have dropped significantly in Berkeley, California.

Not all distribution companies and retailers may have passed on this increased tax to their customers. A twelve ounce of soda would have increased twelve cents. Aloholic drinks and others with no significant amount of sugar, did not receive this additional tax.

A Nigerian court has declared that both Sprite and Fanta are possibly dangerous when mixing with Vitamin C. Coca Cola owns both Sprite and Fanta. A Lagos high court judge ruled these soft drinks potentially poisonous.

Benzoic acid and other additives when mixed with Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, could cause a health hazard. The African National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control wants Nigerian Bottling Company to put warning labels on all Fanta and Sprite products. This warning label is to include a warning of mixing this soda with vitamin C.

Tests of this product in the United Kingdom revealed this potential dangerous cocktail. Africa’s Food and Drug administration is encouraged to periodically test this product for safety. Sunset yellow and benzoic acid are known to become carcinogenic.

Large amounts of these soft drinks were destroyed in the United Kingdom.

I recently received an order of Uncle Lee’s organic green tea from LuckyVitamin.com. This order included four free twelve count packs of Spry’s one hundred percent Xylitol natural chewing gum. This gum is GMO, gluten, and sugar free.

No artificial sweeteners are used either. However, after chewing one piece of Spry natural cinnamon gum, I received a lesion in upper right part of my mouth. Perhaps this is a coincident perhaps not.

Gum base is not necessarily natural. As a matter of fact, the United States Food and Drug Administration allows forty six different chemicals in this substance. Many of these chemicals are trade secrets.

Each flavor of gum includes that flavor in an oil form. For example a piece of Xylitol cinnamon gum includes cinnamon oil. Many times gum oil includes olive oil.

Olive oil is combined with cinnamon. This mixture is then heated. Vegetable glycerin is a sweet tasting non toxin. Generally, this substance comes from animal and plant triglycerides.

In Xylitol gum glycerin is an additive. Gum Arabic is a natural gum found in acacia trees. In chewing gum it is used as a thickener.

This substance is used in a slew of household products not placed in your mouth. Sunflower lecithin is a natural fat found in sunflower seeds. This natural fat can be found in organic form.

However, often times it is heavily processed when used in commercial products. Carnauba wax comes from palm trees. This wax is often times refined and bleached when used commercially.

I wrote a blog recently pertaining to fourteen teens getting sick from possibly laced gummy bears. As a raw food vegan, I am always learning about how products are made. I decided to find out how and what gummy bears are made from.

Basically, gummy bears are made mostly from gelatin you would find in Jello for example. However, this gelatin is then created by boiling animal bones, skin, and tendons. One large ingredient is collagen.

Collagen is a protein found in quite a few animals including us humans. Collagen is what makes your skin elastic. If a product such as gummy bears includes Gelatin than it is NOT vegan.

There are some vegan made candies with substances such as Cellulose also known as Amid, Agar Agar, Biobin, Guar, Xanthan, Carob fruit, etc. These substances allow an elastic texture similar to Gelatin. If a product lists Gelatin as an ingredient, then that product is NOT vegan.

Manufacturers use strong acid or strong base to break down ground up bones, hooves, connective tissues, skin, tendons, etc. A popular short video titled Gelatin The Real Story has received millions of views on the Internet. This is a quick primer of how Gummy Bears and other candies with Gelatin are made. Finally, Gummy Bears include corn syrup, sugar, water, food coloring, and citric acid and fruit juice flavorings.

On December six two thousand sixteen thirteen Naperville North students became sick after eating Gummy Bears laced with an not disclosed substance. This high school is in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. These students showed signs of a fast heart rate, dizziness and dry mouth.

Lily a Naperville North High School student was quoted verbatim:

“A lot of people told me there were kids going to the hospital on stretchers and everyone was really sick from the gummy bears.”

All thirteen students were transported to a nearby Edwards hospital. Eleven of those students remained hospitalized as of Tuesday afternoon. Two of those remaining students were released.

Some students claim this candy was laced with a liquid based marijuana substance. Police claim this candy is still being tested and wouldn’t verify validity of this claim. Details remain sketchy concerning whether or not these students knew these gummy bears were laced or if they were completely oblivious.

Another report claims that fourteen total students were taken to a hospital, with twelve actually eating those gummy bears. At one point a seventeen year old student was questioned by police and taken into custody. However, that student has since been released by gestapo I mean police.

I was not able to find out if these were vegan and or sugar free gummy bears. Naperville School District released an official statement on their FaceBook page. Naperville Illinois police released a short statement on their FaceBook page.

Outcome of this incident will be interesting. Were these gummy bears laced at a factory or once purchased? Perhaps a solution is to not eat gummy bears even sugar free at all.